It has sparked a winter discounting war as retailers gear up for a “make or break” festive period.

The big retailers will be handed a much-needed boost today as one in five Scots hit the High Street for sales starting at stores including Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, House of Fraser and, for early risers, Next, whose doors will be opening at 6am.

Debenhams marked what it said would be its biggest sale in the company’s 233-year history by opening many of its stores at 7 o’clock this morning.

John Lewis, whose reductions will start tomorrow, is offering discounts of up to 50 per cent and has promised to keep true to its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ commitment even during the sales period.

For those who prefer to avoid the bustle of the High Street, online retail giant Amazon.co.uk is set to slash prices by up to 70 per cent across various departments.

Hopes have been raised that the festive period will kick-start Scotland’s flagging economy after the country’s major shopping centres recorded their busiest Christmas on record.

The Centre for Retail Research predicted today that more than 900,000 shoppers will descend on shops in Scotland, up around 25,000 on last year’s Boxing Day, spending a total of £150million.

The size of the sales frenzy means tills across Scotland will today ring up an average of £275,000 a minute – or £4,600 a second – over nine hours’ trading.

Ryan Manson, general manager for Aberdeen’s Union Square shopping centre, said: “The final week of trading before Christmas was buzzing, and we recorded some of our busiest days on record.

“Christmas Eve was an incredible 15 per cent busier than last year and the busiest Christmas Eve we’ve ever had.

“We expect Boxing Day to be another busy day as shoppers hit the high street to take advantage of the post-Christmas sales.”

And Peter Beagley, general manager of Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow, echoed that prediction.

He said: “We’re prepared for a very busy Boxing Day and it looks like being an early start for the army of bargain hunters we’re expecting through our doors to make the best of the sales.”

Richard Dodd, of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Boxing Day will be a busy day, although it is unlikely to beat the £2.5billion we believe was spent UK-wide on Saturday, December 17.

“The economic climate means that people will be searching for bargains even more intensively than last year.”

Around 20 per cent of people are expected to wait until New Year’s Day to go out shopping on the High Street as well as another 21 per cent who plan to bag their bargains ­online.

Clothing, footwear and accessories are the most popular targets, followed by electrical goods and then computer games, DVDs, books and music.

According to new research from MoneySupermarket Shopping, 1.5 million people across the UK ordered goods over the internet on Christmas Day, while a staggering 26.2 million plan to scour the internet for bargains between today and the end of the year.

Moneysupermarket spokesman Simon James said: “My advice to shoppers is not to be drawn into headline offers – use a shopping comparison website to make sure you really do get the best deal.”